Singing :)

I'm one of those people who KNOWS that my singing voice is (putting it nicely) not so good. In church when we were little me and my sisters would make weird voices and scream the church hymns and input funny words instead of being somewhat normal and just singing the tunes like normal children. Pat makes fun of me daily when I scream, "I love this song", pump up the volume on the radio to some swanky new 92.3 song I love and sing what I think is amazingly brilliant lyrics, then to my surprise the lyrics are TOTALLY different than I had in my head. He always says, "sounds like a Nisey song."





But, my little monkey Jack...he LOVES my voice :). From the first second I held him and said "Hi little guy" and our eyes met and he acted like he had heard my voice for years I knew I had finally found my match! We don't have many children/babies in our family so it's been years since nursery rhymes have been sung. I sing "10 little monkies jumping on the bed one fell off and bumped his head" I forget what comes next so fill-in whatever comes to my head. Most of the time it's something random like about the diaper rash cream or the owls on the wall or our dogs, but he loves it and totally doesn't know the difference he knows mommy's singing and smiling so he should smile too!





I feel bad for anyone who has to listen to me over the baby monitor and poor poor Pat. "Jingle bells batman smells, Lila laid an egg" or "the head bones connected to the hip bone?" or singing the hokey pokey "you put your right hand in and and put your right hand out" I clumsily forget which is right and which is left every time. I sang "baby got back" the other day. But, Jack lays calmly on his changing table and soaks up every tune cooing and smiling. I've gotten used to making a total fool of myself for this child :)

I never knew humor...

I thought my life was pretty funny before Jack. I thought things couldn't get funnier than drinking with my friends and the hilarious things that would happen during some drunken night. I thought doing our ridiculous dance moves, annoying our significant others, and random cab ride conversations at 3 am were hilarious. I thought college was funny. Looking back at calvert street porch convos, random nights at Dill street bar, and all-out gaudy and revealing halloween costumes it couldn't get more hilarious, right?

Parenthood is hard and difficult and I think God throws in humor everywhere. Well, atleast I like to think he does it to keep me sane! I didn't know the real humor in life until I had Jack. Real humor is getting peed directly in the mouth at 4 am because you are literally falling asleep standing up and then you realize your changing a diaper. Jack also found peeing on mommy funny. Real humor is being so worried about pumping enough milk before going back to work that you forget to even hook the bottles up to the pump and it takes you 8 minutes to realize that the warm sensation on your lap is milk spraying everywhere. Real humor is pouring the 6 cups of water onto the countertop instead of making it into the coffee pot and proceeding to find your cell phone in the fridge when you look for the creamer. Real humor is running so late to work because you want your son to nurse as long as he feels like and then rushing to brush your teeth you somehow get listerine in your eye. Real humor is almost opening the door for the mailman with your nursing bra flaps down and honestly not caring or knowing how long you've been "roaming free" throughout the house (woops!).

During these sleepless nights and days it's easy to get into a rut and complain and think that all these random nuisances are just making you late to work, or late to an appointment, or just annoying. But, I feel like it gives you a chance to sit back and laugh and enjoy some of the hilarious small things that you'll look back and miss. God must know that I need this humor on my first weeks back to work :)

Nursing...

This is his I want Boobs and I want it now...why is it taking you so long to realize this face. Nursing was what I thought the hardest part of labor...getting started was rough. But, now after that first month it's the easiest thing and has been great for me and Jack. I was afraid it wouldn't work for us, but now I don't know what I'd do without it. It's our time...he loves the skin to skin contact and no matter how upset he is...he loves to nurse. I thought nursing would be awkward or get in the way or be a pain...actually today I did bottles and it was SO much more time consuming and I'm obviously used to just plopping on a couch and feeding...not worrying about heating anything up, getting clean bottles, and washing them. We hold hands, I play with his toes, he sighs and falls asleep. It's a mental, physical, emotional bond that I can't even explain, but I'm already dreading the day that it will stop :(. I know the day will come, I just hope he doesn't self wean any time soon. I can't believe my milk alone has filled those chunky cheeks with nutrients since he popped out! With his milk allergy and reflux it's so great that we started out nursing bc he would've been a MESS on formula...it makes reflux/gas worse and we probably wouldve started on cow's milk~~yikes!!

There has been the baby buzz on my phone and also there's a fbook page called The leaky Boob that is amazing! They have thousands of nursing moms (fellow leakies) on the leaky boob to answer whatever your ? is...they also post ?'s facts each day that are very informative! The woman who started the leaky boob is actually trying to get grants/further the site...I think it's awesome what she has done for a topic that is little discussed in public. Women send text pics of where their nursing in public and how! It's great at calming my nerves about it, and they even have a video on "how-to" NIP~nurse in public...ohh the terms I'm learning :)

I pray that our little bond lasts atleast until he's one!

Tips on nursing (I need to read these when we decide to have another baby):
Go to Lactation consultant at first thought of stopping/thinking milk is drying up/having issues

Have people you can talk to...even online to help you

Get my brestfriend nursing pillow

Always have a glass of water by you or else your husband will be your water bitch :)

Nipple cream and Motherlove those first weeks is amazing

Trust that it's a science and your baby is getting enough even though you can physically see the milk!

Pumping is weird at first, but then you'll catch yourself handsfree, eating, pumping, and on the cell~~I almost answered the door for the mailman one time pumping~~oops!

2 month Dr. appt

Holy heffer! At Jack's 2 month appt he weighed 12 lbs 8 oz and was 24.6" tall. He's 66th% for weight and 93rd% for height! I'm so glad he's gaining and growing so well...so far he's had no supplements only breastmilk! The Dr. said he looks great and is growing wonderfully and has jumped into a different class of weight/height since birth! My lil chunker :)....I was worried about his reflux and have noticed that when he's super tired his left eye is smaller...I guess his eyelid is just a little lazy..she wasn't worried at all but it worries me though bc these things need to be fixed when their little so it doesn't effect vision later in life. So she said they usually wait until 4 month appt. so refer to eye Dr. for that type of stuff since he's just now starting to look around he may build up the strength without us even having to worry about an eye Dr. He also got the dreaded shots. I gave him tylenol before, but it was still terrible...Pat thank God went with me. He slept alot that day but then woke up SCREAMING...that night he was a mess, and the whole next 2 days he was a mess...praise the lord for tylenol! I was ready to have my munchkin back!

Today he's about 2.5 almost 3 months and I weighed him with clothes on and he's 13lbs 8oz :) He's almost doubled his birth weight! Next appointment we are discussing cereal and she also said that will help his reflux...also it may fill the lil man up a little more!

1st ZOOO trip!

So the picture above is something I've been dreading...nursing in public. With Jack not taking bottles...it was inevitable! We went to our first zoo trip with the Durrett's and I'm so glad they got us out of the house on this beautiful day! Jenny put it as there will be many crying kids there so no one will notice if Jack's a hot mess. So I knew he'd get hungry so I nursed right before we left...sure enough the SECOND we walked in the zoo he was suddenly hungry...this is the first bench at the zoo and I planted my happy nursing butt right there. I figure kids are probably seeing a lot worse at the zoo :). My chunky lil man filled up and we were off! He was such a good boy that day...he had one meltdown but Jenny got him to sleep and put him in his stroller and we were good! I'm so excited for Jack to actually understand what's going on at the zoo...I LOVED it when I was little. Pat was pretty excited too...when Jenny told him he could pet the sharks he ran up as fast as ava and Addie haha

Almost 11 weeks..D Day is this week :(

SOooo the dreaded week is here. I go back to work on Thursday. Words can't describe how MUCH I'm dreading this. I never thought I'd want to be a stay at home mom (fulltime anyways) and right now I feel like the only thing holding me from it is of course the $ and mainly bc I carry the benefits for our family. Jack had so many rough weeks that I hate leaving him now that we have everything figured out! About a month ago he was diagnosed with the milk allergy so I am now officially dairy-free and also he has reflux. He was prescribed zantac and also prescription gas drops bc his gas is so bad. He is so much better!! When his reflux got to it's worst point, he wouldn't take a bottle like he had from 2.5 weeks on...he refused, it hurt to bad and he just wanted to nurse. I've been PANICKING the past few weeks honestly buying every bottle/nipple in every store...sometimes he would take a little, but usually he would spit it out and SCREAM.

I have to go back to work two weeks fulltime...uggghhh. We are taking him to Barb, James' sitter the first two weeks so he really really needs to take a bottle or atleast get milk somehow. I talked to my friend/photog. Sarah and her lil girl had the same problem and really refused to take a bottle for 11 months. I know everyone says "he will if he's hungry enough" but he would be starving and it just enraged him more when you put a fake plastic nipple in his mouth. It's the worst feeling in the world to know that every time you leave if he gets hungry he will just "scream it out". So basically I've just been home every 2 hours....if I have errands to run I make sure I nurse immediately before I hit the door.

Today I did a trial morning run...just so I can have an idea how early to wake up on thursday. I need to nurse, pump, shower, and get out the door by 715a. Luckily Pat is dropping off Jack these first few weeks...then once I start my part-time schedule we won't have to take him anywhere :). Today was NO NURSING day, I tried bottles, shot glasses, sippy cups, and syringes, and spoons. We DID IT! I'm so proud! My goal was to make it until 1130 (my lunch time at work in case I needed to run and nurse him) and we made it til 530!!! I'm so proud of my lil nursing king!! He actually took down medela bottles today and the nipples were for over 9 month olds and was slurping from a shot glass. He wasn't grouchy at all!!

These past weeks have been awesome, he is really starting to come out of his shell and we can see his little personality more and more every day....kind of scary how much he reminds me of myself! He is now cooing and has officially found his hands. He loves sucking on them and is constantly moving and grabbing. After 10 weeks mommy of the year has finally understood some of his cues and knows when he needs a nap and when he's too overstimulated. He loves bathtime and lovessss to be changed~he could sit on his diaper changing table and coo for a half hour easily.

Jack was pretty cooped up for a while. With him being sick and then him being in so much pain from the reflux it was hard to take a screaming out of control baby anywhere. We're starting to take him out more...we had a dinner at the rooney's and Jack actually fell asleep there, we actually had our first zoo visit with the durretts, and we went over to the durrett's for dinner and jack went to sleep there also. Each time it builds my confidence a little more. This weekend we're going up to Mel's and it will be the longest car trip....this could be really good or really bad...his relationship with his carseat is a love/hate one.